The Lost World

Rating:
Summary: A sad excuse for a sequel
Review: I am a huge fan of the "Jurassic Park" novel so I had been eagerly anticipating the reading of its sequel, "The Lost World." Having finished it, I now wish I would have saved my money and time. There are so many things wrong with this book that I don't have enough space to list them all, but I will list the main failings of this book that landed it within the genre of junk literature along with romances and that sort of worthless ilk.
First of all, as previous reviewers have also noted, didn't Ian Malcolm die in "Jurassic Park?" Crichton's use of Malcolm without giving any other explanation other than that "it was an exaggerated and overblown rumor" after killing him off in the original book shows a flippant disregard for his fan's intelligence.
Secondly, with the exception of Ian Malcolm, the characters are entirely too simple, one-dimensional, and formulaic. Its disappointing that such a usually imaginative writer such as Crichton could have been so lacking in the creation of complex characters.
Thirdly, the book is inflicted with an anti-scientific attitude, with a disparaging respresentation of the academic world as a collection of prententious, overweening, and pedantic fools obsessed with their own narcissistic fantasies and grandiose ideals who are so locked up within their caged world of theories and hypotheses that they have become completely disengaged from reality. The objections presented by Ian Malcolm against natural selection as an satisfying explanation for evolution is so outdated that the eminent zoologist Richard Dawkins had perfunctorily dismantled them years ago in his extraordinary "The Blind Watchmaker." The fact that Crichton would put such weak assertions into Malcolm's mouth shows me that he had been extremely lax toward doing thorough research on the subject of evolution, probably only reading the creationist viewpoint. Philosophically, the rest of the book is infused with a load of postmodernistic thinking, which is especially evident on the last page.
The fourth reason this book really sucked. The inclusion of the two children was severely irritating, almost making those parts unbearable to read. I also hated the villains and felt they were absolutely pointless. They didn't add anything to the story, didn't do that much in the story, and didn't last that long to really affect the reader in any way.
Fifth reason this book really sucked. Throughout the first part of the book in which the research group had first landed on the island, our heroic group is almost completely left alone by the giant inhabitants of the island. However, the last half of the book the characters can't even pick their nose without having a dinosaur breathing dangerously down their neck. The dinosaurs are made out to be super genius dinosaurs, being able to radar into where their eggs or babies are, even if they are miles away, overblown intelligences that rival those of their human prey, and a stamina and speed that our modern technology cannot equal. Those pesty velociraptors are too ridiculous to believe in, being able to outrun vehicles, run for miles and miles without losing any energy, never having to rest, and relentlessly attacking the humans as if they have no other care in the world.
Conclusion: "The Lost World" was as bad as the movies that it inspired. Obviously created purely for commercial reasons; action we have seen in a million different movies, cheap thrills, Hollywood entertainment that isn't in the least believable and lacking in any actual substance, Michael Crichton has written a book for those of us who like our reading quick and easy, served up for us like a Happy Meal at McDonalds.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah
Review: I purchased this book from Amazon and love it. The story is gripping and compelling. Its one of those books you just can't stop reading no matter how late it is or how bad you have to pee. And if you are a student who wishes to be a paleontologist or just think paleontology is neat then you will enjoy this book even more.

Rating:
Summary: OK if you haven't read Jurassic Park
Review: I read this book about a year and a half ago, well before the movie came out. I absolutely loved the original Jurassic Park and it ranks as one of my most favorite books. But frankly, some stories just don't need sequels. Jurassic park is one of those stories. "The Lost World" gives me the impression of a forced sequel that was only done for the sake of having a sequel (in other words for the money). "The Lost World" makes up situations that were clearly not true by the first book. The most obvious is the island. In Jurassic Park, it was clear that Isle Nublar was the only island possessed by INGEN, but in The Lost World another island magically appears which was also used by the company. Also, as many other readers have noted, Malcolm was clearly killed off in the first book, while somehow he comes back to life to be the main character in The Lost World. As it tries to force these situations to work, it also reuses the situations present in Jurassic Park. If you have read Jurassic Park then you will find this book annoying. If you haven't read JP then you may enjoy this book. But if you haven't read either then I would go with Jurassic Park. It is a lot more logical than this book.

Rating:
Summary: As good as Jurassic Park
Review: If you liked Jurassic Park, you will like The Lost World. If you can get past aspects of the book that are more unbelievable, like the recurrance of Dr. Ian Malcolm, it can be a fun book to read. There are different theories on the behavior of the dinosaurs in this book as the characters this time are trying to simply observe the habitat. Although I enjoyed the characters in this book, I agree with another review and I feel that once again the dinosaurs steel the show. Crichton is able to put you on the island and make you feel like you are there observing the dinosaurs. Crichton has again created an exciting and thought-provoking book and I recommend it to any Crichton fan.

Rating:
Summary: jurassic park was the man's last good book
Review: is it just me or is it fun to find a book/movie/product that obviously sucks and read all the 1 star reviews of said item? it's always good for a laugh. today i'm looking at the 'The Lost World'. this books is so lame that it was the first that i stopped reading halfway through cuz it was so dumb. this book is as bad as the worst summer movie you're ever likely to see. predictable, COMPLETELY unscientific, corny.. ridiculous. it was over for me when the kids stowed away in the rv and ended up in the jungle. terrible. i could look past the fact that chrichton ressurrected malcolm from the dead if the book was good enough but this thing.. i don't even know how it ended. interestingly enoughm, this was the first of a serious of MC books that i tossed halfway through. the others were Airframe and that one about time travel. i eventually finished the time travel one, but it was so forgettable that i can't even remember the name of it.

Rating:
Summary: A major flop
Review: It was with great anticipation that I read this book. I have been a Crichton fan for a long time and think the 'Jurassic Park' was one of his best books. This book is the sequel and continues where the first book left off.

To my knowledge, Crichton had never written a sequel to one of his books prior to this one. After the original novels success and the blockbuster movie based on the book, one can not help but think that Crichton felt some pressure (from Hollywood, fans, and the big payday - who knows) to continue the story.

Well, this book falls far short of the original. This book seems to follow the same script as the first book, but the characters are changed a little. It just isn't very creative regarding the characters, the premise of the story and without those it has nothing. I actually got the feeling when reading this book that some of it was written with movie scenes in mind.

My advice would be to read the original and skip this book all together. You will not be missing much.

Rating:
Summary: Not like the movie
Review: okay i first saw the movie, when i was little I was a big dino fan, and had huge expectaiton for the sequal seing i loved the first. The movie sucked. I almost threw up at how muched it sucked. So i decided to buy the book. There were charcters never put in the movie from the book.( Dr levine, Arby, Throne, Dodgson etc.)There was so much intense action and suspense in the book. I especially like the part with dodgson and his two lackies trying to get the eggs from all the dino's on the island. And at least they didn't throw in the San Diego part in the book. When i saw that part in the movie i literaly threw up on the person next to me. The book ended perfect with them finding a way off the island(in classic Jp form.) That part from the movie was just thrown in too make it longger. Dont let that nasty movie ruin a classic. Get this book.

Rating:
Summary: Dan R MUST READ!
Review: Six years afterward, Ian Malcolm still has nightmares about his skin-of-the-teeth escape from Jurassic Park. Like everyone else connected with that debacle - an eccentric millionaire's attempt to establish the world's most spectacular amusement park by recreating long extinct dinosaurs - Malcolm denies knowing anything about such matters. But a man named Lewis Dodgson, who once paid computer programmer Dennis Nedry to steal dinosaur embryos, knows what happened. Dodgson also knows that there's another island off Costa Rica where the "factory" supplying Jurassic Park once operated. Dodgson remains determined to find that abandoned facility, for his own ruthless reasons. Meanwhile, scientist Richard Levine also wants to find that island - and Ian Malcolm finds himself drawn back into a nightmare he barely survived before.

This book is at least as good a read as Jurassic Park, and in one way I found it better. I thoroughly enjoyed Sarah Harding. Author Crichton's women usually lack credibility with me, but in this one - a wildlife biologist who even in the midst of life-threatening chaos takes time to mentor a talented young girl, and who never, ever gives up! - he's created a character who lives and breathes.



Rating:
Summary: Micheal Crichton delivers again
Review: So far, my favorite book is "The Lost World", despite some of it's obvious flaws. Such would include the large number of inconsistancies between Jurrassic Park and this sequel, and obviously the only reason Crichton wrote this was because Universal wanted a sequel for Jurassic Park, but these are easily forgiven over the quality of the work. As opposed to the first Jurassic Park, Crichton takes much more time in his visual descriptions of the actions in this novel, giving a better sense of the passage of time. One would notice that this book is noticably longer than the first. Crichton, like usual, is a master of educating his readers while entertaining them, better than many writers. Of course, one has to mention the often frightening edge-of-your-seat suspence that makes this novel impossible to put down. If you read this book and find yourself still craving knowledge and dinosaur action, I would suggest the novel "Raptor Red" by Robert T. Bakker. This book is also extreemly informative as well as action-packed, however it does not have the real scary edge of The Lost World or Jurassic Park. On the other hand, it is written from the Raptor's perspective, and is a real interesting twist on normal dino stories.

Rating:
Summary: The Lost world
Review: The Lost World

After reading this action packed novel, I believe that Crichton has done an excellent job of making dinosaurs come to life.

Throughout the story, Ian Malcolm has to go back to the forgotten island full of dinosaurs in order to continue on his chaos theory. Meanwhile he's looking for Dr. Levine. This book opened with dying dinosaurs on a beach, and an intellectual speech by Ian Malcolm, but the story continued with more and more suspenseful tonality, as Ian and his group dig them selves deeper and deeper into more and more dinosaur problems. At the same time, Ian Malcolm is filled with internal conflict between what is right and what is wrong.

At first when Ian and his crew land the island and start observing these wild dinosaurs, everything appeared to be safe. I felt like that Malcolm will come to a conclusion on his theory of life, and they will go home safely. Soon the dinosaurs are starting to recognize that there are people on their island. The dangers of Nighttime come to soon, before they can leave the island.

What also makes the story interesting is Crichton's use of contrasting characters. He sets Ian Malcolm as the major protagonist, who is generally the wiser person out of the scientists. Antagonists are generally demonstrated as people who are less experienced in life and knowledge. For example, Dr. Levine who is a young, ambitious scientist goes out onto the Dinosaur Island himself, and almost gets him killed, this becomes an antagonizing problem. Meanwhile, the two kids cause problems because of their curiosity. These colorful, but stupid in choice making characters leave many problems up to Ian Malcolm to resolve.

One of the major themes that Crichton demonstrates is how stupid humans in the world can be. He shows that humans have no control over nature, and they're not the smartest organisms on the earth of course because, the dinosaurs have outwitted them numerous times. Crichton also demonstrates that we can easily self-destruct by not knowing our limits. The company, which genetically engineered these dinosaurs using DNA encoded in the blood of flies stuck in rock hard sap, didn't take into consideration that the dinosaurs could grow and destroy them. The same mistake is made because Ian Malcolm made the stupid choice of revisiting the island again. He didn't learn about his stupid choice until he got himself and others into the trouble.

As one of the first books I've read from Crichton, I highly recommend it for anyone who takes interest in action packed novels with lots of suspenseful tonality. Anybody who reads this can also benefit a learning experience about science, evolution, and morals.